Before Serenity: A Sergent's Story
by UnicoFanFiction
Summary: River has started to look to Mal as a father figure and the two spend many a slow hour with Mal telling her stories from his war days. One such tale of Mal's Sergent days tells River why he hates the Alliance as much as he does. This is part of my 'Before Serenity' range of stories.
1. Chapter 1

**Before Serenity**

**Chapter 1**

…**.. ….. **

River looked up with those big puppy dog eye and Mal's face. He sighed and rolled his eye in a defeatist manner. River smiled back at him satisfied in her victory over him to tell another tale from his war years.

"You know the Doc won't be happy you hearing all these spun yarns young'un." Smiled the captain as he switched the cockpit to autopilot.

He and River had been spending a lot of time on the bridge of recent. In all honesty the bridge had become the place most of them spent their time. Mal thought it was because of the memories of Wash that soaked the walls of the place; after all it was only two months since he had died.

"What he doesn't know won't fuss him much" she replied as she tucked her legs under her in the co-pilot seat.

They had been in the black for two days now on a legit cargo run to a rim mining moon. The rest of the crew was asleep with only Mal and River unable to get some shut eye. River in herself had become more chatty and her brother Simon had noticed she was becoming more like her own self, more in control of her acquired attributes.

"Why you so interested in my old war stories these days?" Mal asked.

"I just like to know" she quietly replied.

She had secretly wanted to hear about the Battle of Serenity, of course she was scared of asking as it was still a massive scar on her captains mind. Instead she questioned him on the final week before Serenity in the hopes he'll slip into it without realising.


	2. Chapter 2

**Before Serenity**

**Chapter 2**

…**.. ….. **

Zoe looked down at the pool of sick begging to gather around her boots. She gazed up with a none too impressed at Tracy sitting opposite.

"Tracy, would you like to explain?" She scowled.

"Sorry Zoe" he replied with a cheeky grin "I guess that tin of fish was off."

She knew he didn't do it on purpose but still had to hold off the need to butt stroke him with her rifle. The shuttle they were sat in was buffeting from side to side as the old hulk of a thing began its burn up into Orbit. Pvt Tang leaned from her seat and tapped Sergeant Reynolds on the knee to wake him. He jumped with a start.

"Gorram it Kelly, You don't just wake a man form a deep slumber like that" he barked as he rubbed his eyes free of the sleep.

"It must have been deep Sir" began Zoe "Your snoring was so bad we figured it to be parts of the ship coming off at first."

Malcolm rose from his seat and gave a stretch. Before him in the hold on pull out 'Cargo Seats' was his squad. Zoe had been with him since day one of the war of course and Tracy wasn't long after that. Kelly Tang and Forest Flynn were new recruits to their little berserker squad. Since the independence couldn't match the alliance on a toe to toe basis, unconventional warfare was the name of the game. Squads like theirs would either work alone to screw up any Alliance troops or connect with other squads to make up Platoon size brigades. The only person missing from this picture was their Commander by the name of Barrett.

"We on the ground yet" he asked half confused as his brain finally was awake enough to notice the buffering.

"We're five minutes out Squad" come the booming voice from behind him. It was Barrett returning from the bridge. "Get your gear together, the Captain wont be hitting the dirt for long, he wants up and out as soon as boots are of his bird" he continued.

It took them no time at all for them all to be fully kitted and ready by the Cargo doors.

"Hey Tracy, what's on your boot?" asked Flynn.

Tracy looked down to see an old alliance leaflet stuck to his boot. The floor of the shuttle was a was a mess and still not cleaned from a previous mission to an Alliance outpost. Tracy leaned over and pulled it from under him.

"Hey Zoe look" he grinned "Alliance wanna know if we fancy a move to Miranda."

Zoe waved the old immigration leaflet from in front of her face.

"You wanna get your head in the game?" She said in a serious tone.

"Sorry Corporal" he said sensing her tone was not one to be messing with.

The shuttle finally bounced to a halt and through the hull they could hear the engines on high rev as they readied to power the thing back up.

The hiss of the doors filled their ears as the creak of metal cut through them as the doors opened up to show a jungle like environment in front of them.

"Welcome to the shitty end Gentlemen. Move out" ordered Barrett.

The mission was a simple recon one. They were tasked to get eyes on a possible Alliance mining facility on thebackwash of rim planet's jungle moon. They had been walking for a few hours now.

"No, Tang I'm telling you shooting from the hip is best way to hit an enemy" Joked Mal

"But what about aiming" replied a confused private not clicking that her Sgt was pulling her chain.

Before Mal could wind her any further the squad was stopped by Flynn who was on point at the front of the group. The dynamic of the squad changed as they switched to fully professional with faces set with determination. Mal, keeping low, moved up to Flynn's position.

"What do you see?" He asks in a whisper.

"Up ahead" Flynn replies without taking his eyes on his 12 O'clock position "It's a perimeter fence."

Mal could see maybe a 100 yards ahead of them a 7ft wire fence cutting through the jungle ahead of them. Any doubts of there not being a facility here where surely put to bed. Doubling back to the main group Mal relayed the news back to Barrett.

"For an inhabited moon it sure has a big fence through it. My guess is it's not made by the local butterflies."

"Agreed Sergeant. Okay you and Flynn push up and we'll be right behind you." came back the order.

Moments later the fence was cut and the squad was now on the inner side of the perimeter.

"Have you seen these plants Sir?" whispered Zoe to Mal. "They don't look as healthy as the ones on the other side of the fence."

"Yeah I see it. My guess is whatever they're mining here is pretty bad for the local greenery" he replied.

"I'm not looking to have my nuts fall off here Sarg due to some poisoning" interrupted a nervous Tracy.

"Don't worry Tracy I'm sure the ladies of many a fine Kat House will still bed you with only one nut." Said Mal in a playfully, mocking tone.

Private Tang was on point at this moment and the squad noticed her drop straight on her belly quick smart. The rest of the group quickly followed and clicked off the safeties on their guns. Waiting a moment to see what would transpire Barrett started to make his way towards the private. The rest of the group started to follow him until they all found themselves side by side prone overlooking a cliff edge. Below them was a carved out hole in the ground that showed to be a pretty decent sized surface excavating programme.

"Okay, okay lets get the comms up" said Commander Barrett as he fumbles for a hand held Sat-Comm. He was a decent enough guy in charge but when he got nervous it would annoy Mal and Zoe as you really should have a calm level headed leader.

With the squad now spaced out a little to provide a perimeter defence Mal listens as Barrett gives a Firing solution to the mother ship in orbit.

"Erm… Fire needed at 2Aplha65 by 8Charlie26 by 3Gamma44, Use AK88, that's Alpha Kilo Eight Eight, How Copy?" Said the Commander into the Sat-Comm as Mal listened in. _AK88?_ Thought mal, the first three commands were the location indicators; the AK is the type of weapon they requested to be dropped. _AK88, why does that ring a bell?_

The commander waited for a few seconds as he listened to the reply. Then it finally dawned on Mal was the AK88 was.

"bái mù wángbādàn! You're going to get us fried" yelled Mal as he leapt to his feet. "We need to move now" he said to a confused Barrett as he yanks him up onto his feet.

"Mal?" said Zoe as they all stood and started to follow Mal out back into the jungle as he began to run.

"AK88 Zoe, AK88" he yelled back. By this point the whole group bar a panic stuck Barrett who had just realised his mistake was in full sprint unaware of why they were running. The AK66 was a full airborne bomb droplet attack that would have smashed the area and most probably cleared the area. The AK88 is a tactical nuke, Barrett had mixed up his orders and now had condemned them to death.

Mal had realised this and now was running for his life as the nuke was only maybe five minutes from target. Barrett hadn't ran, most probably because he was scared to the spot.

"Where the hell we running to Sarg?" yelled an out of breath Tracy running along side.

"There" Pointed Mal sliding to a stop at the cliff edge. Some one hundred and fifty foot below them was a large pool of water that is surrounded by cliff edges all the way around.

"You mean for us to jump into that sir?" Asked Zoe as the group comes to a rest out of breath by him.

"It's that or glow in the dark for the next two thousand years" he replied as he flung himself off the edge into the pool below. The group watched him in utter shock as he disappeared under the water. The scene was interrupted by a shockwave above them as the warhead entered the atmosphere.

"Oh hell" winched Zoe as she flung herself off with Tracy following close behind.

From below Mal, treading water looked up to see Zoe and Tracy dropping down at break neck speed towards him, The sky behind them became a bright white, followed by a thunderous roar of the nuke shockwave. Then the sky went black with the wind blowing the dirt and foliage across the top of the cliff. Both squad members hit the water hard but were safe. The location had protected them from the shockwave and heat blast Flynn and Tang were not as lucky; their reluctant nature to jump resulted in their deaths. Barrett would have been dust within seconds.

The three squad members had swam to one edge and clung to the rocks.

"How did you know the pond was deep enough Sarg?" asked Tracy as he spat water as he talked.

"I didn't. The only thing I did know what that our commanding officer was an idiot" Mal replied.

"Okay, any idea how we get out of here" he smiled turning to Zoe.


	3. Chapter 3

**Before Serenity**

**Chapter 3**

…**.. ….. **

They were lucky Zoe had pulled her S.O.S radio alarm before she had jumped. Within twenty minutes a shuttle had winched them aboard and they were back safely on the mother ship. The golden glow of its engine burst shot the frigate deep into the black at break neck speed.

In new kit and warmed up the three friends sat on the deck floor drinking coffee.

"Is it me or do we keep getting stuck with terrible commanders?" asked Zoe in the dry joking way she does.

"I find that you must be a little terrible to command fine men and women like us into battle Zoe. Hence why we've lost our third in as many years." Mused Mal.

"Hell if it wasn't for you Sarg we'd be ghosts twenty times over." Added Tracy with a mouth full of rations.

They were approached by one of the other guys from the crew of the ship.

"Hey you guys heard?" he started "we're being pulled into a fleet and hitting Silverhold."

The Brown Coats rarely pulled their ships into fleets due to the added dangers from Alliance attack. For them to be doing this it must have been a massive op.

"Any idea where we're hitting?" asked Zoe to the crew member.

"Pfft no clue, but if I was a gambling man I'd say it was Silverhold due to the rendezvous point." He finished as he walked away to gossip some more elsewhere.

"That guy every heard of the phrase 'loose lips sink ships'… you know what I mean" quipped Mal turning to Tracy who was looking forlorn at the floor.

"Silverhold" he mumbled to himself. "My Ma and Pa are on there."

Silverhold was the home planet of Tracy and his family. A place he hadn't been back to in three years since he joined the army. Shortly after he shipped out the planet was invaded by Alliance troops and had been occupied ever since. Tracy loved his parents and it always lay heavy on him that he hadn't spoke to either of them for all this time due to the Alliance embargo. He tried to get information out from time to time but all the chatter was basically no better than gossip.

If the Independents are planning on taking it then it would result in a massive power shift in that sector.

"How the hell we taking there?" Tracy asked no one in particular with a creak of worry in his voice.

"They got to be pulling all the squads together, one big push I reckons" replied Zoe.

"It means we're finally on the offensive" Mal's tone was serous "Finally we can get this War back our way".

If the Brown Coats were successful this would be the turning point in the war they had all been waiting for all these years. For Tracy it was a chance to go home. Maybe see his parents.


	4. Chapter 4

**Before Serenity**

**Chapter 4**

…**.. ….. **

Twenty Four hours later Mal, Tracy and Zoe are jammed shoulder to shoulder in the hull of a drop ship along with a hundred or so other soldiers. It had been a good few hours since they had all been stood watching the video brief of the mission. For the first time the Alliance were in a position to be able to take back a lost planet. The Alliance had pulled out a lot of their personnel at the last minute for some unknown reason, the brief detailed that the Brown Coats would land in force in several key sections of the planet and fight until the populous was freed and independence declared. Mal and his two squad mates had been lumped on to a bigger task force and were due to land in the farming district. Their priority target was an Alliance Facility in the middle of nowhere.

Tracy had finished putting his PDA Map away and had turned to Mal.

"Where this facility is Sarge. It's only a hop and a skip from my folk's farming stead."

"I'm sure your folks are been fine..." Interrupted Zoe in a matter of fact tone, trying to calm a worried sounding Tracy.

"**Five Minutes till landing, get ready" **The warning came from the ships speaker system.

"No yeah, my Ma and Pa will be shiny" said Tracy not very convincingly.

The hull lighting turned red, and the ships engines gained revs as she hit down in a ploughed field not far from the target location. The hundred or so men pilled out the now open hull doors and quickly and quietly spread out towards the compound some two miles west of them.

They had landed at dusk to allow them to move with some darkness for cover. The three of them had now found themselves at a forward observation point looking through digital binoculars. The compound looked like it had heavy security at some point but from his position he could see the main and side gates where open. The area all around had burn marks indicating that that at least a dozen ships had blasted off there. Mal passed word via a runner to the Company Commander that it looked deserted. Some six minutes later the word came for each man to move across the no man's land and into the compound.

Zoe opened the office door with her foot as slowly and as quietly as possible, her weapon rose ready to shoot whoever was in there.

"Empty Sir" she advised.

"Another one. Where the hell is everyone?" whispered Tracy

"Hello anyone in here looking to kill us?" yelled Mal breaking the stealthy silence.

They all had practically cleared the whole compound at this stage. It was clearly a science facility but nothing on the ground level had giving away what the Alliance were up to. Hard-Drives, paperwork and consoles either taken or destroyed.

"They were up to something but hell if I can work out what" add Zoe as she kicked over another empty filing cabinet.

"Sergeant Reynolds!; Is there a Sergeant Reynolds here!?" came a yell from the corridor.

A runner came into the room.

"You Reynolds?"

"Who's asking?" answered Mal.

"Sir we have a problem and someone said you can help"


	5. Chapter 5

**Before Serenity**

**Chapter 5**

…**.. ….. **

"It's a drill" Mal said somewhat confused to the Lieutenant.

"I know that son, but can you fix it?" Came the reply.

Mal nodded his head and started to take the side panels off. Before the madness that was this civil war of sorts Mal used to work on a sea drilling platform using high powered laser drills. His job at the time was making sure those things kept ticking through their working lives. The last thing he thought he'd be doing in a war zone would be fixing another one of these. He guessed he's previous job role must have been on an electric log somewhere that had linked him to this mission tasker.

Zoe and Tracy had followed Mal down into the catacombs of the facility. They were stood in a large underground section with massive set of steel doors at one end. It was clear to Zoe that the drill was to get through said doors. She watched as a tech guy who was plugged into the security system started to shout over an officer. She could hear him say that the doors were auto sealed during an alarm a few days back and that on the other side of them was a containment unit. That led to labs according to the data he had managed to download.

"Fixed" yelled Mal as he closed up the drill and made his way back to his team mates.

"Sir, did they ever say what this Facility actually was" Zoe's tone was more serous than normal.

"You even know what you all have behind that door?" asked Tracy to a passing tech guy.

"Whatever it is, it's important. That's a powerful drill they have there. That means it's some thick steel holding us out". Replied Mal taking his rifle back off Zoe "But I won't worry about they'll not have anything to do with us. We'll be back on patrol.

An hour later the steel doors where cut open and the three friends were stood zipping up the last of their decon suits. Zoe was shooting Mal a look.

"Hey how was I supposed to know we'd get picked" Mal said raising his hand defensively.

They had been 'volunteered' to escort a few tech guys into the labs. Behind the steel doors was a decon room where they were all now sealed up. The room goes red as the fans blast in a chemical steam compound to cleanse them then a bright green as a door opposite them unlocks.

Mal enters first with his assault rifle raised, inside was a bank of labs behind glass corridors. The place looked like it had been badly ransacked with lights, computers and equipment all upturned as if a Riot had taking place. One of the tech guys behind Mal reported back to the Lieutenant that they were in, the place had power and more importantly the hard drives and databanks were all still here.

"What ever happened here they left in a hurry. Not a full pull out like the rest of the place" observed Zoe.

As well as the destroyed labs and flickering light fittings ripped from the ceiling there was bodies. Lab techs and the odd security guard lay about the floor and over desks. Their bodies looked bitten and torn apart. _What the hell happened in here_ thought Mal to himself.

"It looks secure in here" came the shout from Tracy from one of the other labs.

Mal was transfixed to one of the dead bodies. He was male, in a suit and didn't look to be part of one of the lab or security details. He was laid up against the wall, his mouth full of flesh; it was at that point he noticed the guys arm. It looked like he chewed right through it himself. It was barely hanging on and on each hand he was wearing weird blue gloves that seemed to run right up his arm which had also been chewed through.

"I don't like this at all Sir"

Mal felt like he had jumped six feet in the air

"Gorram it Zoe, I had almost done myself a mischief. Don't sneak up on a guy"

Mal give the body one last look. He noticed something brass coloured in the guys suit. Pulling it out it found it to be a revolver. It kinda looked like one of those old Wild West guns form Earth that was.

"Hey" he said smiling to Zoe "you think I could keep this".

Before Zoe could tell him to put it back there was an almighty crash. They turned to see one of the original lad techs come bursting out of a cupboard at the far side of the room. Screaming and growling, her clothes ripped and soaked in blood she ran straight for Mal and Zoe with her arms flailing. Without thinking Mal twisted the revolver and shot from the hip. The bullet hit true in the woman's forehead killing her.

"Okay" said a shocked Zoe. "You can keep the gun".


	6. Chapter 6

**Before Serenity**

**Chapter 6**

…**.. ….. **

Mal breathed in the mid morning air. He was glad to be finally out of the de-con unit and the horror of those labs. He allowed his mind drifted to other places. He didn't even notice the atmosphere in the place had changed, nor did he notice the border guards looking shook with anxiety and the men running in and out of the front gate. He turned slightly to see Zoe jogging up behind him.

"Mal" she started. He knew straight away something was up. Zoe rarely used his first name, no matter how many times he told her to stop. She continued "You'll wanna see this. Some of the recon guys were prepping the landing zone again…" before she could finish Mal spotted Tracy in full sprint running out of the main gates, he could see the lad was almost in tears.

"Zoe what the _gàn_ is going on?" but before he gave her a chance to answer he started running himself. More and more of the soldiers started running as well, word was getting around and they were all heading for the fields used for their landing area by the base.

Mal came to a stop at the edge of the field. About thirty guys were all stood. Tracy was on his knees gentle sobbing. In front of them in the plowed field were approximately a hundred naked dead bodies. Men, Women and even children lay in their shallow graves.

"The dropship's engines, the engines blew the crap away to show the bodies underneath" said a voice in the crowd.

"The ship's captains only recognized it after taking off after dropping

us all off" added another.

Mal could feel his anger grow inside him. It was more than that, it consumed him. How could the Alliance do this too civilian folk? To kids? He wanted to kill someone, some alliance prick. Anyone in a blue uniform would do right now.

Tracy was slumped on the ground, the life kicked out of him as he looked out into the field. His parent's place wasn't far and if they were killing locals then they would have surely been amongst the dead. He hadn't even noticed he was already crawling out into the field on all fours, sobbing his parent's names. It was Zoe that had gently stopped him and put an arm around him.

"We'll get them Tracy, we'll get these bastards" she gentle said into his ear. Tracy turned to look at her but instead it was Mal who caught his eye. His Sergeant was looking out across the field, his expression was of a man who had changed. A man who was willing to win this war all on his own if needs be.

"Yeah…" Tracy gently replied "We'll get them all".


	7. Chapter 7

**Before Serenity**

**Chapter 7**

…**.. ….. **

"When did you all find out his family were safe?" asked River.

"Erm… it was a few days later" answered Mal as he tried to remember "Tracy was the happiest I'd had seen him. Turns out his family had fled north into the snow mountains for safety".

River dropped her gaze and seemed to be deep in thought.

"What you thinking on young Albatross? Asked Mal

She looked back at him with sad eyes.

"What they were doing on the Planet. That was the start of what they were doing on Miranda wasn't it? Where the Reaver's came from".

Mal spun slowly in his seat to give it a moments thought. He found himself staring at one of Wash's dinosaurs still on the console. Jayne had said they should throw them away. Even now Jayne's nose wasn't set right from where Zoe had hit him after he suggested it.

"Yeah" he said "Yeah it was. We had found out some time later that the lab had an accident. Those things we found in there we're the start of Reavers I guess. The damn Alliance had freaked so much they left the whole damn planet in a rush scared it would spread."

It was by pure luck that the compound hadn't leaked taken to the cold atmosphere of Tracy's planet. A misstep in Alliance calculations one could wonder. By the time the Browncoat's had arrived the airborne mutation was dead.

Sitting with his hands on the wheel and looking out into the Black Mal simply added "I guess they figured they had perfected the compound for use on Miranda"

"Well they figured wrong ain't they" came a voice from the doorway. It was Jayne, neither had noticed him arrive and listen to the door. Which for River was very complexing as she should have sensed even his tiny mind approaching.

Jayne takes a bite out of his final apple as he scratches his crotch.

"So.." he munched "we there yet".

**The End**

**Story by Michael Burness**

…**..**

**I hope you enjoyed my story. I didn't plan it out and basically made it up as I went along (you can probably tell lol). The time setting for Mal's story was just before the Battle of Serenity. I wanted to play with the character history to show why he hates the Alliance as much as he does and feed a little back history on his war years. Hell I even had a little fun getting him to find his now famous gun. **


End file.
